Quote:


The clip shows, clearly, that a wedding party, is doing nothing but dancing and singing. There is no justification, ever, for shooting at presumably unarmed people at the wedding. If they needed to arrest someone, arrest them.

It struck me that it was more likely that people were dancing  (especially perhaps with women) that made Hamas mad, rather than singing. But that was what the narrator said.

No matter what spin you put on it, certainly not all the people at the wedding were guilty of some crime against Hamas, and even if they were - what sentence for sane human beings would include 'drive by machine gun fire'.

You have as they say in showbiz 'jumped the shark' by seeking to defend this clip Abu.

Abbas blames Hamas for bringing Israel's wrath 28 Dec 2008

11:02:57 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Corrects day in paragraph 9)

CAIRO, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the rival Hamas group on Sunday for triggering Israel's deadly raids on Gaza by not extending a six-month truce with the Jewish state.

Abbas, whose Fatah movement has been at loggerheads with the Islamist group, said maintaining the truce could have helped the Palestinians avoid the Israeli raids, which have killed more than 270 people in Gaza in the past two days.

"We talked to them (Hamas) and we told them 'please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop' so that we could have avoided what happened," he said in Cairo.

The two groups have been at odds since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and then drove Fatah forces out of Gaza in June 2007.

Israel said its raids were in response to cross-border rocket attacks by Hamas. Each side blamed the other for violating and failing to extend the Egyptian-brokered truce, which expired on Dec. 19.

Abbas, speaking after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said the priority was to end the bloodshed and restore the truce.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt, which has mediated between Hamas and Israel and between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, said the Israeli ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Sunday for the second day in a row to receive a complaint about Israeli military operations.

"We object to this and we demand a stop and that the Israeli army does not carry out a new invasion," he said.

The Egyptian minister said a ceasefire would be the aim of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Wednesday.

Several Arab leaders have proposed an Arab summit to respond to the attacks on Gaza but Aboul Gheit suggested a meeting could be some way off.

"Priority is the Arab measures at the level of foreign ministers ... then we can look at a later phase, but we don't imagine moving without proper preparation for such a summit. First we have to look at the ceasefire measures," he said. (Reporting by Jonathan Wright, Writing by Alaa Shahine; editing by Andrew Dobbie)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LS264262.htm

Hamas has quickly denied this week’s disclosure by the London-based Al-Hayat (reported yesterday by Palestinian Media Watch) that the Palestinian legislature has voted for an Islamic penal code that would include hand amputations, crucifixion, lashes and executions.

However, PMW has found that contrary to today’s denials, official Hamas leaders have proudly announced in the Hamas-run media in the last two months that this Islamic penal code was being prepared, had “14 chapters and 220 clauses” and was nearly ready. Indeed, senior Hamas leaders went as far as to say that when these laws are implemented, they will have force not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank. And according to the Hamas Minister of Justice, the Palestinian laws will be similar to “Islamic states such as Sudan, Yemen, the [Arab] Emirates and Indonesia.”

Examples of Hamas contradictions:

Today Hamas denied: “The [Legislative] Council did not discuss any article of the Penal Code.” [Al Ayyam, Dec. 25, 2008]

A month ago the Hamas Minister of Justice confirmed: “This (Islamic law Penal) Code is being discussed at the sessions of the [Palestinian] Legislative Council, for a second reading.” [Al-Rissala (Hamas), Nov. 12, 2008]

Today Hamas denied: “The Hamas movement… hastened to deny the reports about its approval of an Islamic Penal Code.” [Al Ayyam, Dec. 25, 2008]

A month ago the Head of the Bureau of Islamic Law confirmed:

“The Bureau of Islamic Law is preparing a Penal Code in order to implement Sharia - Islamic law … Muhammad Abed, Head of the Bureau of Islamic Law and legal advisor to the Prime Minister (Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas), said … that the code includes 14 chapters and 220 clauses, and includes in its chapters the basis of the penal code.” [Al-Rissala, (Hamas) Nov. 9, 2008.]

A month ago the Hamas Minister of Justice confirmed:

“Similar (Penal codes to the new Palestinian law) have already been implemented in a number of Arabic and Islamic states such as Sudan, Yemen, the [Arab] Emirates and Indonesia… by Allah’s will it will be published soon.”
[Al-Rissala (Hamas), Nov. 12, 2008]

The following are the full texts of the contradictory Hamas statements, starting with the Hamas statements about the coming Islamic law in the Palestinian Authority and followed by today’s Hamas denial.

Muhammad Faraj Al-Ghoul, Justice Minister in Hamas Government of Gaza, “This (Islamic law Penal) code is being discussed at the sessions of the [Palestinian] Legislative Council, for a second reading [vote] … and by Allah’s will, the Council will approve [the code] in accordance with the general interest and the interest of the Palestinian People. The code is highly important, and it’s not the first of its kind… similar codes have already been approved , and implemented in a number of Arabic and Islamic states such as Sudan, Yemen, the [Arab] Emirates and Indonesia… I believe that this code is highly important, and by Allah’s will it will be published soon.” [Al-Rissala, Nov. 12, 2008]

Headline: The Bureau of Islamic Law is preparing a Penal Code in order to implement Sharia - Islamic law

In an attempt by the Bureau of the Islamic Law [Fatwa] to unite Palestine under one Penal Code, according to Islamic law (Sharia), the Bureau of Islamic Law [Fatwa] has prepared a [penal] code, with the intention to submit it to the [Palestinian] Legislative Council for its approval, and to cancel previous legislation that is based on the laws of the British mandate, and the neighboring countries.

Muhammad Abed, Head of the Bureau of Islamic Law and legal advisor to the Prime Minister (Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas), said … that the code includes 14 chapters and 220 clauses, and includes in its chapters the basis of the penal code…

He said that in implementing this law, the present penal code in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank… will be cancelled… he said that the bill was submitted to the Legislative Council in 2001, but it was not approved in the second and third reading, and therefore some amendments were entered, according to the Islamic law, and it will be submitted to the Legislative Council for approval.

He emphasized that when the law is approved in the Legislative Council, it will be valid in all the Palestinian territories, and will be implemented in all of Palestine.”

[Al-Rissala, (Hamas newspaper) Nov. 9, 2008.]

Public Relations advisor to the Presidency, Legislative Council
HEADLINE: “Hamas denies its approval of the penal law… The Hamas movement, which controls the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza, hastened to deny the news reports about its approval of an Islamic Penal Code that includes lashes, hand amputation and crucifixion. The public relations advisor to the Presidency of the Legislative Council, Iyad Al-Qarra, said that the council did not discuss any article of the Penal Code.” [Al Ayyam, Dec. 25, 2008]

[The HAMAS flip flop, they say whatever they need to, to get through the latest round of media attention.]

calanen, I take it that your sudden change in topic is an indication that you concede all of my points in the last few posts?

soren, what do you suggest should happen if one party in a country decides to annul the elections at the behest of a foreign entity? A foreign entity who's just spent the past 30 years heavily arming the state that occupies and continues to encroach upon your land?

It was a really sad situation to see, and nobody disliked it more than the Palestinians themselves. The Americans also fought a war, actually over very similar reasons... But it's only Muslims who draw your criticism over such things though, right? And your deluded claims that only Muslims would ever commit such excesses.... Because we're just savage barbaric militants by nature right?

It’s hard to understand why Hamas would have a problem with the deaths of Palestinian civilians from IDF attacks. They have death in mind for these same Palestinians themselves, if not as a result of their use as human shields then as suicide bombers. Their vision for these, their fellow Palestinians and their children would be to have pieces of their skull, brains, organs and bone splattered with their blood around a crater where once was an Israeli school bus.

In terms of the quality of their regard for them by Hamas as fellow humans beings with a right to life, what does it matter if Israel takes them out a little earlier?

But...  to put it simply...  YOU are WRONG ABU...  what you believe is a total crock.

I suggest your read this...

http://www.hirhome.com/israel/pal_mov.htm

all of it...  then if you haven't choked on your own vomit, get back to us.

abu_rashid wrote on Jan 11^th, 2009 at 2:19am:

Then Hamas should rededicate itself to being a humanitarian and charity organisation as opposed to a literal iteration of the Salvation Army.

But then I doubt salvation is what Hamas has in mind for Palestinians with its lethal tactics of perpetual harassment of the Israeli State. I believe their aim is to inflict a catastrophic tragedy on the Palestinians themselves in an effort to recruit more killers to the Islamist cause. The dream outcome for Hamas would be to provoke a forced mass exile from Gaza with its resultant infliction of unspeakable suffering on Palestinians such that these innocent wretches then turn over their bodies and the bodies of their children to demented killers who will use them as cannon fodder in the cause of Islamism.